Vance-Granville Community College officially dedicated “Building 10” at a ceremony on Aug. 3, expanding the college’s Main Campus in Vance County to the west side of Poplar Creek Road while providing new space to train public safety professionals and other students.
The building will provide a new home for VGCC’s Emergency Medical Services, Fire/Rescue and Law Enforcement Training programs. Among the guests attending the dedication were county commissioners from Vance and Granville counties, who provided some of the funding for the renovation project, as well as public safety officials from all four counties served by VGCC.
Dr. Stelfanie Williams, the president of VGCC, described the building as a renovated space that has been “significantly transformed from its original commercial state to be able to serve as a location for teaching and learning.” She said that the process was “a metaphor for what education does – it transforms lives. ‘Renovation’ is literally making something ‘new.’ We know that education and training – learning new skills – can renew lives, help us to see things in new ways, and breathe new energy into a community.”
Williams also expressed her appreciation to the local law enforcement, fire and emergency services agencies who partner with the college. “We are proud to work with and train all the professionals who save lives every day, often at great risk to themselves,” the president said.
In welcoming remarks at the ceremony, Deborah Brown, the outgoing chair of the VGCC Board of Trustees, said that “this dedication represents not only an extension of our Main Campus, but even more importantly, an extension of new opportunities for education and training for our community.”
Abdul Sm Rasheed, a member of the VGCC Board of Trustees and chair of the board’s Building Committee, formally presented the building to the college. “Building 10 is the first new building to be added to our Main Campus since 2003, and is being dedicated almost exactly 40 years since Main Campus first opened, in the summer of 1976,” Rasheed said. “The facility we dedicate today is a 16,000-square-foot building, of which 12,800 square feet have been renovated at this time, with the remainder to be adapted for use in the future.”
Rasheed explained that the building, and the land on which it sits, were purchased by the Board of Trustees in 2010. Renovation work on the building began in January 2016 and was completed in July. The Baxter Armistead Architecture firm of Wake Forest designed the renovated facility, while the general contractor was Riggs-Harrod Building of Durham.
Dr. Angela Ballentine, VGCC’s vice president of academic and student affairs, described the facility. She said Building 10 will include classrooms and labs dedicated to the three public safety fields, plus faculty offices, a computer lab, and a general classroom that may be used for a variety of purposes, including continuing education for local businesses and industries.
“The students who learn and train in Building 10 will be men and women of diverse ages and backgrounds,” Ballentine said. “They will be firefighters, Emergency Medical Technicians, law enforcement, corrections and detention officers, of all levels of experience. They will be our friends and neighbors who turn to Vance-Granville for new opportunities and for professional development throughout their careers.”
VGCC Dean of Continuing Education Dale Fey, whose division provides EMS, Fire/Rescue and in-service law enforcement training, and Dean of Business & Applied Technologies Angela Gardner-Ragland, who oversees the Basic Law Enforcement Training program, unveiled a dedication plaque that will be installed in the building in the future. The plaque lists VGCC officials, members of the Vance and Granville County boards of commissioners and members of the North Carolina General Assembly who represent the two counties. State funds paid for the bulk of the renovation project.
The invocation for the ceremony was provided by Board of Trustees member Danny Wright, who will soon succeed Brown as chair. Herb Gregory, the board’s vice chair, offered the benediction.